Cyclist conquers world's tallest hotel

Dubai: For one hour 13 minutes and 41 seconds, this is what echoed in the staircase of the world's tallest hotel yesterday: "How many more floors do we have to finish?"

Polish extreme cyclist Krystian Herba asked this question several times as he climbed the staircase of the Rose Rayhaan by Rotana - Dubai with his bicycle to set the Guinness World Record for Most Stairs Climbed by Bicycle.

"[When] I saw the number 2008 on the stairs, I knew that had I broken the world record already," Herba, who beat the world record set in China at 2008 steps, told Gulf News.

"I feel ecstatic about the win. I don't know how to explain this feeling but it's so amazing," he added.

Split-climb

Herba did a split-climb to accomplish this feat. As the hotel only had 1515 steps, Herba went up the 23rd floor, went down the elevator, and went up the full 68 floors to break the earlier record.

"The biggest challenge was [climbing] 2,040 steps because the highest building I had climbed before was only 1,212 steps which was one of Europe's highest buildings," Herba said.Accompanying Herba on the climb was a team of eight people, including his brother. "I was just walking with a backpack and look at all this sweat," Konrad Herba said. "Imagine he [Krystian] was jumping up in a bicycle which was 7kg and he cannot touch the ground and walls. It is a tough workout lasting a long time," he added.